


Substantial

by Sidonie



Series: The King's Squire [14]
Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Mind Meld, Spiritual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-17
Updated: 2011-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-20 12:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidonie/pseuds/Sidonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Zahir joins with the Voice of the Tribes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Substantial

**Author's Note:**

> Fic inspired by and interwoven with lines from Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_. Can be read as either gen or slash. Stands alone, but is part of my series "The King's Squire." See "Proposal" for details.

Night closes like a black cloak around Zahir, cool and comforting. He turns his attention to the small fire in his hearth, the coals gently smoldering as a few meek flames cast wavering red-gold shadows across the floor. He reaches out his hands to bathe them in warmth as his eyes drift closed.

 _O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard._

A shiver in the pit of his stomach, a frisson of the chill that races up his spine and tingles in his fingertips. It wouldn't happen again, would it? It couldn't.

 _Being in night, all this is but a dream,_

His mind bleeds out into the dark, braiding gentle tendrils through his connection with the Voice, a warm blue presence in his thoughts. Trickles of smoke, curling around and around each other in an endless silence. Images flash between them, lightning-fast and sunstroke-bright. Each crackles and burns across the vast stillness, kindling a thousand fizzing sparks against the black.

Is it really an affair if they never touch?

No, Zahir tells himself, day in and day out. It's a fantasy, an illusion—prayers and moonbeams, held together by the smallest sparkling thread of spun-sugar hope.

 _Too flattering-sweet to be substantial._


End file.
